Activity 12 - Eugenics and false science

Aim

To develop an understanding of how scientific methods can be misused to achieve social objectives.

Curriculum area(s)

• Year 7 upwards
  • Science/False science
  • PHSE
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Politics

NB teachers

Teachers: read Teachers' background notes on eugenics before attempting these activities.

Suitable for adults with learning disabilities?

No

Learning outcome(s)

Understand that scientists should always try to disprove their intuitive position and what happens when they do not.

Time required

Double lesson

Resources

• Teachers' background notes to select the most relevant learning points
• Activity 12/Resource 1 - Kallikak family work sheet

Activity

1. Record and discuss diversity in the class: pigment, eye and hair colour and height.
2. Discuss what shapes us in terms of genetics and environmental factors.
3. Introduce Eugenics and and some of the false scientific methods used to prove eugenicist social and moral attitudes.
4. Kallikak work sheet. Work on in groups and discuss when complete.
5. Draw out other consequences of the false science encouraged by Eugenics.

Ideas for follow up

1. Start with Pictorial Tests used for Army Recruits and Immigrants to the USA. Reproduce copies of tests. Focus after completion on what were the biases in these tests for people with different cultural, educational, ethnic and geographic backgrounds and why any conclusions drawn from them might be false.

• Activity 12/Resource 1a - Army intelligence testing
• Activity 12/Resource 1b - Pictorial test for non-English speakers

1. Test the class on the Mental Deficiency Serial Tests and work out their supposed IQ under this test.

Note to teachers: Please make it clear to students that they are not actually being ‘tested’ in this activity! The aim of the activity is for students to reflect on how problematic and biased the tests are. They are under no pressure to try and get the answers ‘right’.

You will need to provide some of the items listed with a ‘*’ in the resource so the test can be carried out. Split the class into pairs. You will need a test instrument for each pair. One is the subject and the other the investigator. After completing, get students in pairs, then tables and finally the whole class to discuss the test and what it is actually measuring and what biases may creep in.

• Activity 12/Resource 1c - The list of serial tests for mental deficiency

1. Reflect on the power of these tests under the Mental Deficiency Act where such tests were used from 1913 to 1959 to determine the lives of people with learning disabilities, i.e. whether they could live in the community ‘on license’ or whether they would be sent to institutions.

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